20 l ENTREPRENEUR l JULY 2019
dit Madan loves biryani,
and he especially relished
the dish during his trips to
Lucknow, Hyderabad and
Kolkata. He longed for a better
biryani back home in Delhi.
He travelled for two years in
South India, experimented,
searched and mastered the art
of biryani. “After attempting
to cook biryani the right way
for a thousand times, I found a
right balance and ingredients
for my gourmet biryani, much
to the delight of my family,”
he shares. Soon, Madan’s The
Biryani Project took wings.
Kaushik Roy, a former
Group COO at Zooropa Foods,
holds extensive knowledge
of F&B industry. His partner
Vishal Jindal, a founder at
Carpediem Capital Partners,
based in Gurugram, keeps
food and research close to his
heart. Realizing it is time for
them to start their own legacy
in biryani and kebabs, they
started Biryani by Kilo. Jindal
says, “By next year we will
be opening our outlets in the
UAE, the UK and Singapore.”
Coming from a Bori-
Muslim community, Farhat
Saxena, Founder, Go Biryan,
has a similarly exciting
story. After completing MBA
and spending 26 years as a
software consultant and a
corporate strategist, Saxena
finally took a break and
started an aunt-nephew
company, Go Biryan (formerly
known as Le Bereyan).
Her nephew, Shehzaad
Lokhandwala, Co-founder,
comes from a premium car-
reseller background who also
started to work on Chinese
Wok – Sillichilli. They started
off with their first store in
Andheri after pooling their
savings. Farhat adds, “Biryani
is an everyday dish for us but
now the art was to evoke a
sense of celebration and yet
keep it staple for the everyday
consumer.”ON A MISSION
eing an entrepreneur is a
brave decision when youare venturing into a new sector
without any prior know-how.
Luckily for Sreevathsava Rao,
Founder, Biryani Company, the
experiment turned out to be a
success. From sharing biryani
with friends during college
days at Sri Venketashwara
College, Delhi University,
he has come a long way. “I
am a die-hard chicken lover
coming from the land of
Nizams in Hyderabad, and I
believe biryani and I share
an old connection. The idea
came to me in the final year
of college when I explored the
food demand and opportunity
amongst youngsters and
decided to give my shot at
Biryani Company,” says Rao.
From a small kitchen in
Satyaniketan in 2014, he now
has six outlets in Delhi and the
National Capital Region.
Coming from the
hospitality industry with work
experience in Kebab Factory,
Park Plaza and Radisson,
Vipin Kumar and Dharmendra
Singh decided to team up and
started Biryani Art. Kumar
says, “After pizza, biryani is
the most ordered dish in India
and we both saw great scope of
intervening in this industry.”
With finance and corporate
background at Kotak Bank,
Edelweiss, Anurag Mehrotra
from Charcoal Biryani
switched from corporate world
to food industry with ease. His
motivation was the absence
of good Indian food during his
international trips. Biryani
being a whole meal, he wanted
it to be an on-the-go Indian
food. He made good use of
technology in food business to
create data, track and control
the supply chain efficiently.WHY BIRYANI?
he online food ordering
market in India is likely
to grow at over 16 per cent
annually to touch $17.
billion by 2023, according to a
study by business consultancy
firm Market Research Future.
Also, by Statistic reportSwiggy noticed a 681 per cent
increase in its biryani orders
in 2018.
No wonder these start-up
founders chose biryani from
the varied cuisine available
in India. Rao says, “We are
inspired from Nizam, who
used to carry rice, meat and
spices in handis during his
long travels. Biryani brings
this sense of adventure and
wholesomeness in it.” Madan
adds, “While going back to
roots, I wanted to revive the
biryani culture, the variations
and ethnicity it brings along.”
BBK’s Roy is emphatic
about the duo’s choice.
“We wanted to preserve the
Khansama style of cooking in
which each biryani is freshly
cooked with rich ingredients.”
Vinay Mittal, former Chief
Financial Strategist, HT
Media, who has invested Rs 2
crore in BBK’s business so far,
adds, “I come from investment
banking and corporate
finance background; I put my
money only where the mouth
is. I feel the consumption
capacity of middle-class men
is on the rise. Biryani is liked
universally and, especially in
BBK, you can see that capital
spent is equal to revenue
achieved.”
Mehrotra from Charcoal
Eats wanted to bring Indian
food at par with western fast
food in the international
market. He has raised Rs 12
crore to expand business to
Middle East and Europe.FOREMAN’S DISH
mplementing and advancing
the smart kitchen model,
these start-ups have built
their scale. Go Biryan has
a cloud kitchen concept at
outer Mumbai where raw
products and fresh poultry
are sourced from suppliers.
Through machines, the
stored recipe is recreated by
adding a measured amount of
ingredients. They don’t cook
completely but each night
prepare the dishes and deliverStartupOPPORTUNITY
By Shivangi AsthanaSix start-ups with a
single mission are
serving authentic,
flavourful biryani,
and minting pots
of moolah in
the process. The
founders share the
secret recipe to
their success.